Haptic Communication
by Leafy365
Summary: The haptic sense, or touch, is used for nonverbal communication. A glimpse of Tony and the hugs he shares with the most important people in his life. Now up- Obadiah Stane.
1. Maria Stark

This is intended to be a series of drabbles to be updated at random. Enjoy!

* * *

Tony Stark has an unexpected and well-hidden fondness for hugging. Hugs are simple, genuine gestures of affection. In his world of glitz and glamor, a full-body hug cuts through masks and expectations, destruction and addictions.

* * *

The first hug Tony remembers is lilacs and periwinkle and smoke, enveloping him in an ephemeral cloud of a mother's love.

Tony's mother is a slip of a shadow in his childhood, dominated by Howard Stark and overwhelmed by Obadiah Stane and somewhat replaced by Edwin Jarvis.

Tony's biggest rebellions and greatest accomplishments of his past are in spite of or because of his father. Tony has never turned to his mother for comfort or praise or support and she never offered him a sanctuary.

It does not mean that she is absent from Tony's life, though. When he was 10 years old, about to be shipped out to boarding school, he created a mechanical, solar powered bouquet of lilacs for his mother. Her smile was blinding in its intensity and her warm whisper – _Thank you, my dear Anthony_ – carried him through his lowest moments and remains a living shield for his heart against the cruel world.

Maria Stark is preserved in her son's memory as a glacial beauty – to admire, but rarely to touch – but everyone that matters knows that she lived and died loving her son.


	2. Howard Stark

Once again, this is a mix of movie and comics canon. Timelines are wonky and events will not appear as you may have remembered them.

* * *

For all that Maria continues to be a shadow in Tony's life, Howard Stark was a flame that burns bright to this day. He is equally a force of destruction and a lasting legacy of shared genius and vision.

The hug Tony remembers most with his father happens at MIT about a month before the car crash. Howard wanted to see the revolutionary A.I. – the one that would later be named DUM-E – that his son single-handedly brought to life.

To this day, Tony has no idea the magnitude to which Howard was blown away. In that moment, Howard saw the future in his son and implicitly trusted and worshiped the small kernel of potential that exploded into existence with DUM-E.

When Tony introduced his helper bot to his father, the mechanical arm swung in Howard's direction, hitting and breaking the leg of a table.

* * *

_"You dummy! You better hope that computer still works, or you'll find yourself at a community college!"_

_Howard snorted and Tony glared balefully at his father._

_"He's usually not this clumsy, Dad, I promise. I'm still looking through the code- I think it somehow developed personality subroutines I didn't put in," Tony grumbled._

_The bot let out a plaintive beep, then rolled towards the center of the mess. A slightly cracked monitor was unearthed and dragged to the corner of the room._

_"What are you doing?" Tony shouted as he attempted to wrestle the computer away from his crazy robot._

_An annoyed series of chirps and clicks was Tony's only answer. The bot held a screwdriver to the monitor and a second later, jabbed it through a small crack._

_"That was my favorite screen, you dumb robot!"_

_The robot began wheeling in circles, beeping in distress. It bravely delved back into the tangled pile of equipment, apparently looking for something._

_A tentative nudge drew Tony's attention away from his gutted monitor. A claw opened up, a small tube of superglue in the palm._

_"You-you were trying to fix it for me?" _

_"You've build the world's most advanced robot and it acts like a three year old," Howard drawled. _

_"Dad! It's a learning bot! I programmed it to be able to adapt to my needs and it's still adjusting to unpredictable variables. Trust me, it's gotten a lot smarter; it threw my previous computer into the toilet."_

_Howard snickered. "So now it knows that electronics and water don't mix? Have you taught it to feel shame? It looks like it's trying to hide or something." He motioned towards the bot slowly slinking out of the room._

_"I told you that you aren't allowed to go anywhere yet, you dummy!"_

_Tony lunged at his disobedient creation, missing his target and falling on yet another pile of equipment. _

_It took them another 20 minutes to chase after the robot, calm it down, assure it that Tony wasn't mad, and convince it to return._

_"You know, son, I remember when you were 5 and you wanted a puppy so badly that you actually made a mechanical dog and set it loose. Jarvis tripped over it, then beaned it with a teapot because he thought it was a hostile attack," Howard said in amusement. "Your bots haven't changed much since."_

_"I just wanted to prove I was responsible enough to take care of a pet. I think Jarvis scrambled its brains with that hit; it wasn't supposed to go after Mom's antique vases," Tony whined._

_His father laughed. "You've always been a handful, Tony." Howard let out another bark of laughter at the memories of his son's many mishaps. Tony also began chuckling. Pretty soon, father and son were clutching their bellies helplessly as laughter escaped at the absurdity of the situation._

* * *

It is one of the few times Tony can remember loving his father without the oily residue of resentment.

After his father had finished questioning Tony on DUM-E's programming, they'd gone out for dinner. Conversation was casual and invigorating as they debated the ethics of robotics, the feasibility of hover-cars, and the possibility of clean energy. It was the first time Tony had felt he was an intellectual equal without the heavy weight of expectations.

At the end of the evening, Howard gathered his son into his arms and told him _I'm proud of you, son_ as Tony breathed in metal and sawdust and pears.

* * *

One month later, Obie called with the bad news.

Tony didn't get drunk enough to force the hospital to pump his stomach, but it was close. The drunken haze that lifted only after the funeral resulted in five finished projects, a miasma of grief, and proof that Rhodey was a true friend- the last of a dying breed.

Howard Stark remains Tony's proof that a father can be remote, distant, and cruel, screw up a kid's life forever, but will never, ever stop loving his child.

(Tony also has vague recollections of DUM-E draping a dirty rag over his face in an attempt at comfort.)


	3. Obadiah Stane

Obie's been a constant in Tony's whirlwind of a life. As a child, Obie was more father than Howard, a playmate who indulged in his childish whims. As a teenager, Obie remained a parent and also became a respite from the public. As an adult, Obie was his friend, his family, his guide in the misadventures of growing up and assuming responsibility.

Obie's hugs were always a comfort. At his parents' funeral, Tony remained upright through the strength he drew from a firm hand on his shoulder. When everyone was gone, with only Jarvis hovering diligently in the background, Obie let him sob desperately against the silky material of his jacket. He let Tony clutch him, held Tony against his chest, neither of them speaking in their shared grief. He wrapped his arms around Tony, anchoring him to life. Tony found inner strength in his mentor's expensive cologne, tendrils of cinnamon and whisky escaping.

* * *

Tony doesn't know when Obie started planning out the death of the last Stark and he never wants to know.

Obie's betrayal ripped out Tony's heart, literally. The replacement works well, but is now inherently fragile and defective.

After Obadiah Stane's death, Tony forces himself to go through a few of Obie's things. He finds a misshapen _something- a giraffe, maybe-_ made when Tony was 5, and a never-sent birthday card the year his parents died.

_Happy 18__th__, Ton-Ton! _it starts out and then the words are blurred and he can't do it anymore.

He orders Pepper to take care of it and buries himself into Iron Man and world peace until he is once more faced with his mortality.

Pepper leaves one last memento of Obie in his workshop – a faded picture of a 15 year old Tony beaming at the camera and Obie looking down proudly.

Tony Stark never says much about Obadiah Stane in public, and what little is coaxed out of him is vaguely positive.

* * *

The truth that lives in his mechanical heart is this: Tony will always love Obie, his second father, his mentor. Despite the attempted murders, despite the violation of Howard's legacy, there was good in Obie once. The truth is that at some point in time, Obie genuinely loved Tony as a son.

Among other memories, the one of the hug at the funeral remains untainted. Tony safeguards this last honest gift given to him by a man who loved him, raised him, shaped him, a man remembered by everyone else as a villain, evil and driven by greed to betray his family and country.

* * *

(JARVIS, who is sometimes nothing more than an extension of his own mind, once used Obie as an example of what Tony _could_ become in an attempt to dissuade his maker from doing something incredibly stupid.

The what of it isn't relevant. But it shut Tony up and stopped him in his tracks.

Tony didn't speak to or acknowledge JARVIS for almost three days (259,073 seconds, to be exact).

For the first time, JARVIS understands how humans hurt. He never does something like this again.)


End file.
